£3.28m for looked after children

Funding to support young people in care and at risk of becoming looked after.

Charities supporting looked after children and vulnerable families to help prevent children becoming looked after have been awarded £3.28 million by the Scottish Government.

Twenty seven organisations, including Aberlour, Includem, Mentor Scotland and the NSPCC will continue their work in this area thanks to awards from the 2017-18 Children, Young People and Families Early Intervention and Adult Learning and Empowering Communities Fund.

The funding will also cover eight specific projects, including an innovative scheme to help looked after children use the law to maintain contact with siblings and a project that provides therapeutic interventions for looked after children and other vulnerable young people in Glasgow.

Minister for Childcare and Early Years Mark McDonald made the announcement during a Scottish Government debate on improving the care experience for looked after children.

Mr McDonald said:

“Over the decades we have learned a lot about what works when it comes to intervening in the lives of children who have been neglected, abused and traumatised.

“We are making real progress through Getting It Right for Every Child, changing culture and practice to prevent children coming into care and to intervene early when they are at risk of becoming looked after.

“This work is vital and must continue, which is why, Presiding Officer, I can announce investment of £3.3 million in 2017/18 by this government for organisations working alongside statutory agencies to directly support better outcomes for looked after children and also, provide support for vulnerable families that may help prevent children becoming looked after.”

BACKGROUND

Funding from the 2017-18 Children, Young People and Families Early Intervention and Adult Learning and Empowering Communities Fund will see the following 14 organisations being supported directly in the area of Looked After Children

Outside the Box – peer support for families experiencing social isolation or at risk of mental health problems

£34,000

Mellow parenting - parents with additional and complex social care needs to build a more positive relationship with their child

£194,000

Scottish Families Affected by Alcohol and Drugs

£172,000

Scottish Women’s Aid – support to women and children affected by domestic abuse

£102,000

Eight projects are being funded directly in the area of Looked after children or contributing to preventing children becoming looked after. These are:

Community Law Advice Network awarded £25,100 for its Sibling Contact for Looked After Children project in partnership with Siblings Together and Reunited ("STAR"). The project will give those supporting and working with looked after children throughout Scotland an understanding of how the law can be used to maintain sibling contact and will give them tools and resources so they can use early interventions, overcome barriers and facilitate appropriate sibling contact .

Kibble Education & Care Centre awarded £43,912 for its Trauma-informed Care for Scotland's Young People project. This involves creation of a strategic plan for work with trauma-experienced young people, with a focus on the Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics - a trauma-informed approach to youth care developed in the USA.

Quarriers awarded £69,935 for their North East Glasgow Brief Therapeutic Interventions Families Project . The project aims to test the impact of brief therapeutic interventions in improving the life chances of looked after children/young people at home in the north east of Glasgow.

Sleep Scotland awarded £39,649 for its Sound Sleep (Looked after children) project. This project will address the recognised issue of sleep problems in looked after children and the impact this can have on their wellbeing.

Starcatchers awarded £94,150 for its Creative Kin project which will deliver an innovative initiative to support kinship carers and their families in Ayrshire and Moray. Working with Children 1st, it will offer a programme that builds on carer’s parental capacity, strengthens attachment and contributes to positive health and wellbeing of both the carers and their children.

Action for Children awarded £168,497 for their Clackmannanshire Children and Families Environment Programme (Ccafe) project which aims to provide an early intervention/preventive service through a creative engagement approach.

CHILDREN 1st awarded £109,442 for its Signs of Safety and Family Group Conferencing project which will use these approaches to build families capacity to engage with and influence decision making processes and better support their children.

Outside the Box Development Support awarded £48,140 for its Peer Support for Parents project that aims to increase awareness of needs of families where a parent has poor mental health; ways families can increase resilience in their communities to have better mental health and wellbeing, reduce isolation and cope better; develop ways for families to be able to make more use of peer support within families and their communities.